Fingers point at Golaghat district administration for ‘negligence’ for hooch tragedy

Hooch tragedy

A Correspondent

GOLAGHAT: Several organizations of Golaghat district have raised allegation against the Golaghat district administration for the hooch tragedy in Golaghat district where 155 persons lost their lives till Monday evening due to consumption of spurious liquor.

In this connection, leading organization Mod Mukta Asom Dabi Samiti, along with several organizations, said that due to the negligence of the Golaghat district administration the tragic incident took place in several places of the district. They further alleged that for the fault of a section of officials of the administration, innocent people became victims.

The president of Mod Mukta Asom Dabi Samiti, Probin Das said that in April, 2018 Golaghat district administration seized huge quantity of illegally stored molasses in the godown of Subhash Sahu and Lalchand Agarwalla of Rangamati in Dergaon and Prodip Gupta and Anil Gupta of Merapani after several demands and protests by the public.

On April 22, 2018 the officials of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, in presence of OC Dergaon and under the close supervision of Executive Magistrate, Golaghat, sealed the two godowns of Lal Chand Agrwalla and Subhash Sahu. Later on April 24, 2018 an enforcement team was constituted to ascertain the quality and quantity of molasses seized in the godowns. This enforcement team was constituted under presidentship of then Deputy Commissioner Gourav Bothra comprising Dr. Manika Bora, Circle Officer of Khumtai, Monuj Kumar Bora, Inspector of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs of Golaghat, Bibhuti B. Das, Inspector of Legal Metrology, Archana Gogoi, Inspector of Excise, Porag Chetia, Inspector of Excise, and Mrigankar Krishna Gogoi, SI of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs of Golaghat.

But later the district administration gave permission to re-open the godowns and allowed the molasses businessmen to sell the decomposed molasses to the public. Interestingly, despite taken legal action against the illegal businessmen for storing huge quantity of molasses in the name of cattle feed, the constituted enforcement team given them permission to sell the decomposed molasses. The Mod Mukta Asom Dabi Samiti along with other organizations suspect that the tragic incident of spurious liquor consumption took place due to use of the molasses from the godowns which were seized by the administration.

The Mod Mukta Asom Dabi Samiti slammed the district administration and police administration and demanded the government to conduct proper enquiry and to hold former Deputy Commissioner Gourav Bothra and SP Manabendra Devroy along with the constituted enforcement team responsible for the tragic incident in Golaghat.

On the other hand, death reports from consumption of spurious liquor have come down. The number of deaths was 95 till Monday evening. According to the Golaghat Swahid Kushal Konwar Civil Hospital record, total patients admitted in the hospital were 221. Out of these, 64 were referred to the JMCH, 31 died in the hospital, 11 were brought death, 14 died outside the hospital, 39 died in JMCH who were referred from Golaghat, 12 patients absconded from the Golaghat Swahid Kushal Konwar Civil Hospital and 97 are under treatment in the civil hospital.

Also read: Hooch tragedy claims 78 lives in Golaghat